Boy of 5 brought up as a little girl

Boy of 5 brought up as a little girl

Little Zach Avery insisted he was female and doctors have declared he has Gender ­Identity Disorder.

He just turned round one day when he was three and said: ‘Mummy, I’m a girl.’ I assumed he was going through a phase.

Mum Theresa

Little Zach Avery insisted he was female and doctors have declared he has Gender ­Identity Disorder.

The boy is the youngest Brit to be diagnosed with the condition.

Zach used to like Thomas The Tank Engine but then became obsessed with the girly kids’ TV character Dora The Explorer.

Mum Theresa said yesterday: “He just turned round one day when he was three and said: ‘Mummy, I’m a girl.’ I assumed he was going through a phase.

“But then it got serious and he would become upset if anyone referred to him as a boy.”

Zach started to play with dolls and even tried to cut off his penis, said Theresa, 31. His school in Purfleet, Essex, have accepted he has the disorder and declared the toilets “gender-neutral” to help him.

Theresa added: “We explained to the other kids that Zachy’s body was that of a boy, but in his brain he was a girl.

“We said Zach was just happier being a girl.

“The other kids haven’t batted an eyelid – there’s been no bullying.”

Theresa and husband Darren, 41, say they and their other son Alex, six, have come to terms with his decision.

She said: “I would love to have my son back, but he’s happy with his long hair, pink and red bedroom and girls’ clothes.

“We still put some neutral clothes in his wardrobe in case he decides he wants to wear them.”

The Tavistock and Patman Foundation – the national body for the disorder – said 165 children have been diagnosed with it this year, compared with 97 three years ago.